May elements

It’s the first Friday of the month so that means an “elemental” challenge at Daring Cardmakers. My turn to set it and I put together something for inspiration that I hope has a late spring vibe about it. 

For my card, I chose a flower (it’s slightly tulippy!), smooshed Oxide ink for a background that I hoped might be a bit reminiscent of the wrinkles of the fabric, musical score, glassy domes and some of the colours. I stamped the flower directly on the card base and then again on a scrap, coloured and cut out the head to stick over the base, raising the top just very slightly with some scraps of card.

I decided I’d like my glossy dots to be green, as the glass pebbles are in the photo. Not having any clear green dimensional gunk, I drew dots with a green Copic then added Glossy Accents over the top.

Stamps:
Aged Sheet Music scrapblock (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)
Creative Chaos (Visible Image)
Happy Stamp n Cut and Essential Messages (both Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Memento by Tsukineko (Bamboo Leaves)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide by Ranger (Cracked Pistachio)

Other:
Copic markers
Glossy Accents
Corner Chomper 

Thanks for stopping by, have a lovely weekend!

Link in the chain — April

It’s reveal day at Card Chain Challenge — mine went over the Pond to Linda G this time. 

From the options on offer I chose the sketch (mirror image because my stamp faces right) and the theme of “wild” as it gave me the chance to use this lovely leopard stamp that hasn’t had an outing for quite a while. He’s from the Saturday Evening Post line that Cornish Heritage Farms had and is based on a cover from 1931. 

The sentiment in the sketch really is there, I chose to do an eclipse one and the leopard’s spots do an excellent camouflage job on it!

Stamps:
Leopard Profile (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Vintage Photo)

Other:
Rays stencil (Visible Image)
Copic markers
Hello die (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

There are still a few days to sign up for the May chain if you fancy it - you just need to make and send one card, get a lovely handmade card from the next person in the chain! Sign up is here.

Celebrate

We're celebrating at Daring Cardmakers this week - create a card for any occasion and include the word "celebrate" in your make.

I've combined with the current challenge at Let's Squash It which wants geometric or repeating patterns in our embossing.

I embossed a piece of engraving board (scraperboard when I was a kid!) in an old Spellbinders folder then sanded away the black coating to reveal the copper foil. Some white die cut flowers, a heat embossed sentiment and a little dome made from tomato paste tube metal and call it done.

Supplies:
Bristol board
Birthday (Letter It stamp range by Ranger)
So Trendy (Mbossibilities by Spellbinder)
Wildflower Stems I (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Copper engraving board
Versmark by Tsukineko
Detail embossing powder (copper)
Tomato paste tube

 

Link in the chain — March

Ooops, I missed reveal day at Card Chain Challenge - meant to post this yesterday! From the options for March I chose the theme of farm and the colour palette and made a one layer card that went to Marga in Spain. 

Bossy the Cow was one of the very first stamps I owned. I just checked back and she’ll have been in my collection 15 years come September! I’m not sure she’s ever been a brown and white cow before though. I stamped her with Coffee Bean ink and then coloured her eyes and hooves with a black fine liner.  She has a bit of grass to stand on, a touch of Copic colouring, a sentiment and my usual rounded corner and that’s about it. 

Stamps:
Bossy the Cow (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)
Totally Toadstools (Visible Image)
Essential Messages (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Coffee Bean, Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress inj by Ranger (Mowed Lawn)

Other:
Copic markers
Black fine liner
Corner Chomper 

April elements

It's the first day of a new month so we have an "elemental" challenge at Daring Cardmakers — Jenny has chosen a pretty spring picture for us to choose at least three elements to inspire our cards.

I chose some of the colours, the eggs and some sprigs of foliage, the watercolour wash was inspired by the bunny and the little dimensional dots by the mimosa flowers. They did actually start off as pale yellow. I then dropped the card face down while they were wet. Having scraped the residue off for some reason I decided I’d prefer white ones instead!

I must have had this stamp set for a decade or so and I think this is the first time those eggs have seen ink!

Stamps:
Bird Sanctuary (Clearly Impressed/Michelle Ward)
Say It All (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Pumice Stone)

Other:
Wild flower stems #1 dies (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Copic markers
White Enamel Accents by Ranger

Textured holly

Last day of the month and I'm just managing to squeak in with a card for the current challenge at Let's Squash It - emboss/deboss. Jo and Gail want us to use any embossing folder and use both sides of the pattern on our cards.

I cut a full cardfront and then die cut two smaller rectangles from the centre. I ran the big piece through to get the debossed texture, the smallest through to get the emobssed texture and left the skinny one as a frame in between. I've added a tiny bit of colour to a couple of embossed holly leaves and berries, a stamped sentiment strip and made my first Christmas card of the year!

Apologies that the photo's not great, bright sun and snow glare in Northumberland today! Being a last-minute-minnie I can't wait for better conditions, I'm afraid. I hope it's still possible to see the two sides at play!

Supplies:
Moonlit Berries embossing folder (Couture Creattions)
Bristol board
Stitched rectangle dies, A6 size (Paper Rose)
Vintage Christmas Expressions (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Ivy)
Copic markers
Spica glitter pens (red and green)

Early bird

Miri is setting our challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week: it's the early bird that catches the worm! She'd like to see birds, worms, sunrises - anything to do with the saying.

Lost Coast Designs are currently asking us to "tweet this" so I'm linking up there too.

I thought I was going to have to miss the DCM challenge this week but I managed to make a super-fast one layer card with a stamp that does a lot of the heavy lifting to make a dramatic impact with very little effort. A little stencilling for a background, a few sequins and a simple stamped sentiment and call it done.

Stamps:
Spring bird (Bloom Art Stamps)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Versafine
Tim Holtz

Other:
Rays stencil (Visible Image)
Sequins
Corner Chomper

 

 

Retro orchids

I’m delighted to be Guest Designer with Retro Rubber for the current challenge. It’s an “anything goes” theme this time around so as long as you use a stamp that’s older than a year, you’re good to go!

I needed a birthday card with a touch of elegance and figured orchids might fit the bill. It’s a good while since the orchid stamps came out to play! 

I stamped with pink ink, wiping most of it off the stem so I still got an impression but it was easier to cover with green pencil. The petals are coloured with white pencil which is opaque enough to lighten the base colour of the paper but still allows the pink “veins” to show through. I’d originally thought I would overstamp after colouring with the white but I liked the soft effect so left it alone.

Stamps:
Orchids (Darkroom Door, I’ve had mine since 2013)
Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us, had mine since 2014)

Paper:
Strathmore Toned Grey 
Bristol board

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Memento Luxe by Tsukineko (Rosebud) 
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)

Other:
Coloured pencils
Stitched rectangle dies, A6 size (Paper Rose)

If you need an excuse to break out the older stamps - come and join us!

For Ukraine

At Daring Cardmakers this week we’re aiming to fill our little crafting corner with the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag and sunflowers, the national flower of Ukraine. The Internet has made the world much smaller, many of us know of crafters or others directly affected by the conflict — there isn't much any of us can do but make a small gesture to show support for the people of Ukraine.

This flower was as close to a sunflower as my stash could offer. I stamped it in a light coloured ink and then coloured with a base layer of Copics with some coloured pencil over the top.

Stamps:
Lin Brown 16 — Flowers (Paper Artsy)
Truly appreciated (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board 

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Sandal)

Other:
Copic markers
Coloured pencils
Corner Chomper

Please do join us if you can

Link in the chain - February

February is such a short month, those couple of days seem to make a disproportionate difference, don't they?! Anyway, we're round to Card Change Challenge reveal day once again!

My card flew across the Pond to Helen in Ohio this time (or maybe it's still flying, Helen hasn't got it yet, I don't think). I only managed one of the options on offer this time - the theme of mushrooms. OK, technically this is a toadstool but I figured I'd be forgiven for the slight mycological liberty!

It's my usuual CCC one layer preference, just with a die cut sentiment rather than a stamped one. The grasses are stamped with two different green inks for a bit of grassy randomness.

I think I'd have put this stancil and stamp together anyway but one of the Visible Image design team beat me to it so a shout out to Eileen Godwin is in order here!

Stamps:
Totally Toadstools (Visible Image)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black and Cottage Ivy)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass) and Oxide (Cracked Pistachio)

Other:
Copic markers
Strobes stencil (Visible Image)
Hello die (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Corner Chomper

I recceived a lovely mixed media card from Mia and she added some extra little goodies including  a sweet beaded necklace she made herself - thank you Mia!

There are still a few days to sign up for the March chain if you fancy it - make and send a card, get a hand made card from the next player! Sign up is here.

Thanks for stopping by!